medical tourism 2.0

8/14/2019 Medical Tourism 2.0

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MEDICAL TOURISM 2.0

(This is not a strategy article. The objective of this article is to highlight the importanceof integrating web strategy into medical tourism marketing drive of the hospitals having

stake in this industry)

When Thomas L. Friedman was writing his much acclaimed book- “The world isflat”; he would have hardly imagined that this phenomenon would even penetrateinto healthcare delivery sector!

Trends of patients in the west opting to get their healthcare needs met byhealthcare delivery centers in other parts of the world have been showing arobust growth. 2008 saw first ever world medical tourism and global healthcongress organized to focus in this industry.

The world healthcare market is estimated to be over US $ 3.6 trillion in 2004. During2000-2004, the market has grown at a CAGR of over 8%. The market is estimated togrow at a CAGR of 7.8% to reach a value of US $ 5.25 trillion by 2009. The substantialportion of this market is managed healthcare: 51%.

USA is the largest market for healthcare, with 40% share in world, and the total revenuebeing US $ 1.44 trillion in 2004. Other major markets were Asia Pacific (33.5%) andEurope (21%).

The growing cost of medical treatment, increasing restricted insurance due to “pre-existing” clause (About 250 mill), substantial uninsured population in US (47 mill.)followed by extended delays in treatment due to patient load in Canada (34 mill.) andEuropean countries has added a new flavor to international healthcare delivery industry.

Patients are now looking at affordable world class treatment with “no waiting” athealthcare delivery destinations outside home country. They research on web, connectto others in social media, travel agencies, hotels, insurance companies, interact withpotential hospital at different countries and plan their visit. To add impetus to this, theinsurance companies in the west have started offering various options to cater to thisfast evolving industry.

Hospitals focusing in medical tourism have been busy setting up world class centers,getting JCAHO accreditations, signing up with health insurance payors, signing up withagents, putting up promotion team, etc

One key area that hospitals (Select countries in Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe,

and S. Africa) should not ignore is “utilizing webspace” strategically.




Before we look at how webspace could help a hospital identify target audience andsuccessfully convert them to customers, let’s have a quick peek at the behavior patternof people seeking health information and solutions.

There are two categories of patients that we will consider here:

A. Asymptomatic health conscious individualsB. Diagnosed patients with known ailments.

A.) Most diseases are asymptomatic in its initial stages. They are usually detected by:1. Accident, during health check ups or during treatment of some other ailment.2. Proactive health conscious patient surfing web to address smallest health issue.

B.) Diagnosed patients are very proactive in researching information related to their ailment. They study books, look for case studies on web, seek referrals, etc.




Here is the chain of activities that a patient performs once he/she comes to know of theailment.

.

Learn on the problemthat’s in the body.

Explore its treatmentoptions

Explore costimplication

Explore insuranceoption (if any) –including premiumloading, restrictedcover, etc

Explore alternatechannels

Explore throughresources to affirmdecision

Web (Forums, health sites, connecting forums like patientslikeme.com) etc)

Health camps, Books, family physicians

Ph sicians

Web

Insurance com anies

Web- Networks, random search

Friends, Travel a ents, overnment resources

ACTION

Family Physician, specialist medical consultant

Web space

Insurance com anies

Web space for other insurance options (if any)

Friends, Travel consultants

Web, social media, interactive media if an




It is evident that:1. Conclusive action is a resultant of series of activities.

2. Webspace plays a common denominator in most of the activities

Hence it is important that hospitals have a matured webspace strategy for engaging the

visitor and assisting to desired conclusion.

Now lets have a quick peek into the behavior pattern of visitors seeking health info in

webspace. Here is transactional log based online behavior of people seeking healthrelated info in web space.

45%




Some findings:• Visitors don’t search for medical tourism to begin with.

• The visitor would first look for relevant treatment or disease through search

engines.• Majority of the visitors access micropages (on specific ailment or treatment)

directly from search engines and consumer health sites/portals.

• It is found that the visitors used more of google when looking for health relatedinfo. Compared to other search engines.

Sessions Frequency

Google: 541345 41%.gov domains 219170 17%

Yahoo: 63459 5%MSN: 30305 2%

Visitors searching for health info primarily search for:

b) Symptoms and diseasec) Reports on the relevant disease

d) Case / Medical studiese) Insurance

The pattern starts dissolving beyond insurance.

Hence there is a scope in sustaining a pattern till a defined objective is achieved

(in this case –positive relation building and assisting visitor to choose hospital for the treatment).

To sustain this pattern, there is a strong scope to integrate webspace into thecurrent traditional process. This will help people seeking info on health and

treatment to arrive at conclusion to choose best and cost effective destination for treatment.

Hence an opportunity for medical tourism2.0




Here is the modified diagram showing how the search behavior can be influenced toinitiate positive relation building and assist the visitor to opt for treatment in the target

hospital.

•

Chat session

Integrated Micro pages:

That talks on the diseasefrom patient perspective.-

Push through SERP,SEO, SEM

Integral feature of the

hospital website

Explore Home page

Register

Directly

Register with

partner

agency or

local office of

the hospital in

home country

Micro

Pages on

the targeted

subject

Managed

Toll free call

center

A

B

C

DE

F

G H

I

J

K

Post

servicesocial

media

connect

L




A. Search:

i. It’s well established that the person coming to search engine hasa clear intent and has a “need”

ii. People searching for health related info, would primarily search

for :a. Specific ailment / tips (Diabetes, colon cancer, bloodPressure, etc.) OR

b. Specific treatment (Knee replacement, Dialysis,CABG, etc) OR

c. Insurance options for the specific ailment OR d. Cheaper treatment options

B. View Results:A hospital must cater independently to all search needs mentioned above to initiate

first level engagement. Effective SEO (search engine optimization), SEM (searchengine marketing-preferably paid link on top search), and SERM (Search engine

reputation management) approach will ensure right visibility. Advertising bannerswill not work at this stage.

The topics that come up on the search engine have to be from microsites owned by

the hospital. Its evident in the diagram above, that the visitors look for case studies,and reports on ailment/treatment. Hence these links and microsites should have user-

friendly content on the ailments/treatments case studies, and medical reports.

C) As evident from diagram, the visitor would potentially click on the study link. Well positioned links (in heat zone) will take visitor to the landing page of the microsite

catering to case studies.The links on basics of the disease or treatment and

insurance/cost should be placed at prominent position to drive the attention of visitor tothis section. It’s through these links that the visitor get options to explore pricing and

insurance coverage. As Insurance options vary from country to country, the micrositeshould have country specific info. (Covering an extensive list of indicative treatments and

their cost in listed countries would be of high value to the visitor.)




D) By now the visitor has looked into :

• Case studies

• Understood the disease or treatment• and then looked into pricing options,

There is a broad understanding of the situation, possible solutions, its cost in homecountry and at the hospital located in other country.

At this stage there are two options for the visitor.1.) Choose services at home country (very pessimistic on exploring options outside home

country)2.) Willing to explore further.

It’s option 2 visitors, that has to be assisted through well positioned tabs to managed

social media page.

F) The social media will play an important role:1. It will instill confidence to the visitor in the pursuit of finding solution to the

ailment. The visitor would also begin to gain confidence on the hospital indiscussion.

2. It will enable connecting with people sharing their positive experience of treatment and follow ups at the hospital in different country. (Customers who

agree to write about their experiences) Check out Sherman health or Mayo clinicdrive in social media like facebook. You will see active participation from

patients, general visitors, past customers and fans!3. Offer connecting tools like twitter. This is an interesting way to keep in touch

with the prospects or customers. Based on the area of interest, the hospital canoffer specific topic enrolment on twitter. At this stage the acceptance level of the

visitor for the hospital is pretty high. Once the visitor signs in, then the hospitalcan give daily health tip that will be of use to the member. Checkout

www.twitter.com/shermanhealth Both 2 and 3 become key in connecting with visitor’s decision making process.

G) It is important to maintain constant touch with the visitor.

What if the decision making process is prolonged and the visitor needs to think about it?How do you still be on top of mind recall?

Utility based desktop or mobile branded widgets would do the job maintaining contact.

For instance CRF patient gets a utility tool to input all food and water intake. The widgetthen gives report on how friendly was it to the kidneys for that day. The widget regularly

reminds on key tests like creatinine, BUN etc. Brand interaction of this nature wouldmaintain top of mind recall.




H) By now the visitor has gained enough information and has gained confidence after interacting at social media and with utility widgets. This is the stage when the visitor

would like to explore delivery center in detail. This calls for personal contact andinteraction.

One of the easiest ways is inviting the visitor for a chat session, web conference(should be available 24/7).

Second life is still trying to gain momentum. However using second life here at

this stage will work good. The interaction between real and 3-D virtual worldsconvey greater feelings of presence, facilitate the clinical communication process,

positively influence group processes and cohesiveness in group-based therapies,and foster higher levels of interpersonal trust between therapists and patients.

( J Med Internet )

The visitor would get an opportunity to visit replica of hospital in second life, interact with its service team.The service team should proactively interact with the visitor in ensuring successful confidence buildingexercise.Here is an example you can refer to get an idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu-QNFLD1mg

Both chat session and service team in second life should continue to highlight the 24/7 toll free number.

The chat session or service team in second life can also assist the visitor in choosing the travel plan. It’simportant to close the decision making chain by bringing the visitor to hospital agents chain-Real life.(Partner Travel agents, medical tourism consultants, local office, etc). This gives localization comfort to thevisitor. This activity also strengthens relation between hospitals and agents.

K). Once visitor gets admitted into the hospital, it becomes important to ensure excellent service delivery.This will ensure a happy customer who would in turn become the brand ambassador.

The question is- How can this phase of process be marketed well so that it creates multiple brandambassadors?

The answer is “engaging all near and dear ones to the customer admitted”. They are the most keenaudience.

Create a virtual waiting room with an option to choose second life experience.

Maintain frequent updates on progress of treatment being given to the patient.Initiate chats or web conference with those wanting to interact.

second life option gives all engaged viewers an opportunity to go through hospital premise. Visit waitingroom, where the service team can interact and update progress of treatment (medical/operation, etc)

Added feature like real time simulation of waiting room and the service team attending to them for updatesgives the visitor a stronger binding with hospital. The over all experience of attention to the near and dear ones coupled with excellent service delivered to the customer would create multiple brand ambassadors.This will lead to many more people writing great experience on social media, than only the customer who gotgreat treatment.

The virtual waiting room can also update all photos and video clippings.




L) As the happy customer leaves the hospital, its important to retain the loyalty. The best way is to keep thetab with the customer through

> social media network updates (facebook, youtube, twitters, etc),> web based events> small localized events (general health checkups, get-to-gathers) to bring in

the personalization.

This will ensure top of mind recall and maintain a bond developed since the first initiation of engagement.

Its these customers and their relatives/friends that will become real assets of the hospital in medical tourismbusiness.

Diagrammatic synopsis of the article.

Educate Instillconfidence

Interactdirectly

(digitalmedia)

Deliver great

service at the

hospital.

Offer great attention

to near and dear

ones through

proactive updates

and interactions.

Keep tab withcustomer

Search jungle

www

Ironing out the

process throughstrategic webmarketing

Keep tab with near and dear

ones

Other sitesthrough ePR

medical tourism 2.0

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